Shetland: the long road north

I have wanted to visit Shetland in the autumn for many years but have either lacked the time, the energy or the organisational panache to get myself there. The offer of a place in a car with David Bradnum for a nine day trip at the turn of the month was not, therefore, to be missed - time and energy are still in short supply, but the organisational skills of Bradders are second to none, so I found myself in the luxurious position of just having to send him occasional tranches of money as ferries, accommodation and other essentials were skilfully procured. Vaughans Howard and Bob (no relation) had their names on the other two seats in the car and while our mutual friend James Lowen had hoped to join the party, an apparently under-stocked brownie point jar put paid to that.

Juvenile Long-tailed Skua, Goswick, 26th September 2017

A pale phase bird

The plan was to arrive in Shetland on the overnight ferry on the morning of 28th September and comb the islands for rare birds for the following week and a bit - but first we had to get there. David proposed leaving a day early and stopping overnight at Berwick, providing time to do some birding on the east coast on the long road north. I met up with the others in Cambridgeshire, where a kindly Jim Lawrence had agreed to lower the tone of his neighbourhood by allowing me to park my old banger outside his house for the time we were away (thanks Jim!), thus reducing my driving time substantially.

Effectively a 'photo-tick' for me as I managed to lose the files of an individual of this species flying past Dungeness taken many years ago!

The Skua was feeding on worms from the short grass of the golf course fairways

The first leg of the journey to Cambridgeshire went smoothly as did the second which took us to a lunch stop on the A1. This was rudely interrupted by breaking news of a Taiga Flycatcher at Flamborough Head - precisely the sort of east coast mega we had hoped would occur en route. The excitement was short lived, however, when seven minutes later it was re-identified as a Pied Flycatcher (!). At least we hadn't diverted from the main drag and with the Passat's hyper-drive set to warp speed, we reverted to Plan A and a hoped for close encounter with a juvenile Long-tailed Skua in Northumberland.

The light was tricky for flight photography...

...these my best efforts

Skuas are normally pelagic species but every now and then one will pitch up on land allowing for closer and more prolonged study than would normally be possible on a seawatch. This one had pitched up literally on a golf course near Goswick. On arrival we were hailed by probably the friendliest and least possessive bunch of golfers we had ever met, all of whom wished us well in finding the funny seagull which had been sitting on their golf buggies over recent days. Unfortunately, as we approached the Skua's favoured fairway, Howard picked it up flying distantly away from us. After landing briefly it took off again and flew strongly to the south.

This shed on the Goswick golf course would have made a good seawatching hide given what was on the fairway!

Barred Warbler, Kilminning, 27th September 2017

We decided to check out the Lindisfarne area and try for the Skua again later. A visit to The Snook turned out to be good practice for the coming days - each of several stands of willows held a Yellow-browed Warbler and we met some local birders who had flushed an elusive locustella warbler which they thought might be a Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler - a highly desirable Siberian rarity. After an hour of searching we had seen nothing - would this be a taste of things to come on Shetland?

The chunky warbler initially appeared in the shadows... 

...before coming out into the sunshine

Heading north again, we returned to Goswick to find that the blue skies of the afternoon had given way to a thick evening sea mist - better news though was that the Skua was back. Whilst still pretty mobile, it eventually settled on a fairway by the dunes, allowing us to get superb views and some decent photographs in the fading light. At times it came close enough to touch. But that would have been weird...

A rich crop of elderberries held the Barred Warbler's attention...

...it was still there over a week later

Goswick was conveniently close to our overnight stop in Berwick, and with all day to get to Aberdeen we were able to bird a few hotspots on the Scottish East Coast - St Abbs Head produced more Yellow-browed Warblers and an amusing encounter with an incompetent sheepdog and his irate owner who turned the air blue with an excoriating critique of his technique. But the highlight of the morning was an extremely co-operative Barred Warbler gorging on elderberries at Kilminning near Fife Ness. So that was two excellent birds to start our adventure before we had even boarded the ferry - good omens for the coming days, we hoped...

Possibly the boldest Barred Warbler any of us had seen...

...and probably the most acrobatic